


Free! Star Museum Swim Club

by WennyT



Category: DBSK|Tohoshinki|TVXQ
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Free! Iwatobi Swim Club Fusion, M/M, Romance, Swimming Boys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-10
Updated: 2013-10-10
Packaged: 2017-12-29 00:24:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/998660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WennyT/pseuds/WennyT
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Changmin gave up swimming in order to focus on his studies. Then he meets Yunho, a competitive swimmer who specialises in the freestyle.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Free! Star Museum Swim Club

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sohii](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sohii/gifts).



> This piece is written because of her persistent nagging. Inspired by a certain singer swimming in a black undershirt on his show. Certain phrases are shamelessly borrowed from the Free! Iwatobi Swim Club anime. Feedback is, as always, appreciated.

* * *

 

Shim Changmin is in his last year of university at Star Museum College, when he meets Jung Yunho. Or to be more specific, Changmin hears of him. University campus is alive with whispers of a swimming prodigy, one with broad shoulders and long legs and is apparently a natural in the pool.

 

“The girls in my composition class say his personal best is forty five point two seconds for freestyle. Hundred metres,” Ryeowook says, when their usual group gathers for lunch one Wednesday afternoon.

 

“Pfft. Rumours. And how do they know that?” Minho scoffs, half of his club sandwich jammed into his mouth. He is the only one amongst them who is a member of the swimming club, although all four of them are able to swim.

 

“Don’t discount rumours, mate. The hot babe that sits next to me in philosophy class says so too, and she says she was in the same high school as him.” Kyuhyun raises an eyebrow over his plastic cup of wine.

 

“You’re always gullible whenever your source has a great rack,” Minho fires back, wrinkling his nose. “And alcohol at one in the afternoon? Really?”

 

“That’s _hyung_ to you, you little brat,” Kyuhyun snipes, and things quickly dissolve into petty name calling with Ryeowook sniggering into his salad and Changmin smacking both of them at the back of their heads.

 

“But anyway. I suppose we’ll see. If he is that good in the water, I think Siwon- _sunbae-nim_ will scout him for the club sooner or later.” Minho gives a shrug and sits back in his chair, his tone all but declaring his certainty that the president of their university’s swimming club will do anything but that.

 

Changmin feels a pang in his chest at the mention of the water. He has never told his friends this, having met all three of them in university, but he had quitted swimming competitively when he was eighteen to focus on school. Film is a demanding mistress that fills up all of his hours with readings and background work. He does not have time for the water even though it calms him.

 

* * *

 

He is thus surprised to learn that Yunho is a fellow film major like him, when the latter sits down next to him in _History of Sageuk_ 402 in the first class of the semester.

 

“Hello,” Yunho slips into the seat next to Changmin’s with a friendly grin and a hand outstretched towards Changmin, voice hushed because the professor has begun her introductions up on the podium. “I’m Yunho. Hope you don’t mind me taking this seat.”

 

“Oh, no, not at all,” Changmin returns, more flustered than he cares to admit. He does not tell Yunho that he already knows his name. “It’s okay, there’s no one sitting there anyway. Er, hi. I’m Changmin. Er, Shim Changmin.”

 

“Nice to meet you, Shim Changmin. My surname is Jung.” Yunho’s smile widens, and Changmin beams back, helpless under the curve of Yunho’s lips.

 

* * *

 

It does not take long for them to become fast friends, and for Yunho to join the swimming club. Minho is especially disgruntled about that, complaining, “that Jung dude must be on steroids or something, because I don’t believe he is able to beat my record for two hundred metres butterfly just like that without help!”

 

His ire rises when he finds out that Changmin has been ditching the three of them to have lunch with Yunho in one of the study rooms instead, and it leads to an embarrassing shouting match between the two of them down the hallway to the neuroscience research laboratory. It takes Ryeowook nagging at him for a week and Kyuhyun beating him about the head with his Xbox controller for Minho to work up his nerve to apologise to Changmin while the latter is studying in the library.

 

“Don’t apologise to me, you weren’t rude to me.” Changmin purses his lips, words clipped and brusque. He stabs a finger at Yunho, who is sitting across him surrounded by stacks of books on racism in film. “Apologise to _him_.” 

 

“I’m sorry.” Minho mutters; head angled downwards to the floor. Yunho gives a polite smile and an “it’s okay, I accept”, but Changmin is not appeased. “I don’t. That’s ‘I’m sorry, _hyung_.’ He’s five years older than you, you prat.”

 

Yunho shushes him, but Minho stiffens at the remonstration and looks up, meeting Yunho’s eyes with some difficulty. “I’m—I’m really sorry, Yunho-hyung.”

 

“That’s all right,” Yunho rubs at his nose self-consciously. “I accept your apology. Thank you, Minho.”

 

Changmin harrumphs but does not say anything else.

 

* * *

 

 

Minho soon warms up to Yunho, and all five of them start having weekly lunches in the university cafeteria. Ryeowook and Kyuhyun joins them in the pool when it is just Yunho and Minho training on their own, but Changmin always contrives to come up with an excuse or other, with assignments for homework as the one most commonly utilised.

 

Kyuhyun corners him one day and asks straight out, “do you have a phobia of water?”

 

“Wha— n—” Changmin blinks, caught off guard. But this will be a great excuse. “I mean, yes.”

 

“You’re lying,” Kyuhyun states flatly. And he does not let up until Changmin spills everything.

 

Kyuhyun stares hard, after Changmin finishes his long-winded ramble of a story, clearly musing over something. He lets out a breath and asks, “So is that why you won’t go near the water? Because you miss it too much?”

 

“It sounds stupid when you put it that way,” Changmin bites his lip, feeling oddly ashamed. “But I suppose so, yes.”

 

* * *

 

But Yunho is much more oblivious than the perceptive Kyuhyun, and he does not guess his friend's secret until one day, when Yunho’s nagging finally gets too much for Changmin. The latter shows up at the university pool where the swimming club spends four days out of the week training, when Yunho tells Changmin he will be slightly late for lunch.

 

Changmin comes to a halt by the open-air showers, a thrill weaving through him at the sight of the rippling water and blue tiles. He is glad that there is no one else around except Yunho, who is practicing his freestyle stroke and cutting through the water like a knife unto butter. He stops when he sees Changmin while coming up for air, though.

 

“Changmin!'' Yunho greets, waving madly while bracing himself by his elbows at the pool's edge. There is a droplet of water running down his clavicle, down in between his pectorals, and Changmin gulps and tries not to look. Yunho does not notice. “You came!”

 

“Hey, you,” Changmin murmurs, somewhat awkwardly; hands tucked in his pockets. “We still on for beer and barbequed meat after this?”

 

“Of course!” Yunho beams up at him, scraggly-wet hair in his face, half covering his eyes. Yunho gives his head a little toss, to get it out of his vision, but all it has done is to draw Changmin’s attention to the strong line of his neck. “But give me about fifteen more minutes, I need to get in another forty laps.”

 

Noticing the way Changmin's eyes keep sliding from his to focus on the pool, Yunho props his chin up with a hand and asks, “since I'm the only person using the pool... Do you want to join me? Swim a little? We’ve never swum together before.”

 

“What? No!” Changmin’s hasty refusal has Yunho raising his eyebrows. “Why not? Come on, Changminnie. The water feels amazing!”

 

“Just… Nope. I don’t have swimming trunks, anyway.” Changmin shakes his head. Yunho heaves himself up by his arms, and Changmin’s mouth go dry at the ridiculously tiny Speedo Yunho is wearing. It is black. And tiny. And wet. And black. Yunho’s legs are muscular and the bulge in between his thighs is surprisingly obscene when wrapped in wet spandex.

 

“Is your underwear clean?”

 

“W-what?” Gaping, Changmin feels his mouth fall open. His mind does not seem to be working. Yunho gives a little snorting chortle and continues, “I mean, did you just change it today? Did you shower?”

 

“I—yes.” Changmin replies, feeling slightly insulted that Yunho is questioning his personal cleanliness. It snaps him out of his daze somewhat. “Yes, I did. To both questions.”

 

“Then strip down and come on in,” Yunho invites, slipping back into the water. Changmin can feel himself nodding and forces himself to shake his head with some effort.

 

“Why not? Come on, you’re clean, your underwear is clean, the chlorine will take care of the rest.” Yunho is laughing while backstroking languidly, and before Changmin realises what he is doing, his shirt is off, he is down to his black undershirt, and he has unbuckled his belt.

 

“Just the jeans left now, come on, Changminnie! There’s no one around but us.” Coaxes Yunho, and Changmin takes a deep breath and unzips his jeans, toeing them off to stand beside in just his boxer briefs. The weather is somewhat nippy, and not conducive to standing around in one’s underwear, and Changmin shivers.

 

“Okay.” He breathes in deeply again, sucks it in and before he can hesitate, Changmin executes a perfect race dive into the pool, feeling his body slide in with minimal splash. He twists and heads for the surface, the movements ingrained, nearly second nature to him.

 

Yunho’s eyes are on him when Changmin surfaces, the weight of that gaze almost tangible. “Changmin… You’ve swum competitively before, haven’t you?”

 

Shit. Changmin keeps silent, treading water, but he can still see Yunho looking at him, from the corner of his eyes. He feels almost guilty for having kept this from Yunho, and it prompts him to offer a soft “yes”.

 

“So why did you stop?” Yunho looks heartbroken, when Changmin finally makes himself turn to face him. And Changmin realises with a thrill that Yunho is heartbroken for him, for Changmin. No one has ever felt sad or anything similar for him before, not even his parents, who knew about how he gave up his dream of working towards the national team four years ago.

 

It feels... odd. Novel. But not unpleasing.

 

“Because of school,” Changmin answers, letting his hands spread and drift in the water. It is easy to talk while looking at Yunho in the eye. He swallows as his eyes drift down south of Yunho’s neck, and looks back up hurriedly. Better to focus on the face. “I’m bad at multi-tasking, and I can’t afford to fail school. My dad always wanted me to read Film because he didn’t get to when he was in school.”

 

“And it’s not like I’m not interested in Film too,” he tacks on hastily after seeing the troubled expression on Yunho’s face. “It’s not like he forced me or anything. My parents are very supportive. And my mum suggested I could continue with swimming as a hobby, but I didn’t want to do it and then miss what could have been. What if I get resentful and bitter and start blaming them, or myself? Or, well, yeah. You get the drift. So I gave it up completely.”

 

Yunho’s eyebrows furrow in confusion. “But… don’t you miss it?”

 

“A little.” Changmin tries for a smile, but he does not succeed, because Yunho does not smile back. “I got used to it.”

 

“Huh, that’s, that’s,” Yunho is at a rare loss of words, and he gets a determined, mulish sort of look on his face. “Well. Okay. But since you're already in the water and all... How about swimming with me? We’ll race.”

 

Yunho does not give Changmin time to utter “no” as an answer; he curls his body around, a graceful unfurling of limbs, and he swims the backstroke to the far edge of the pool.

 

Changmin follows. It is scary how instinctive it feels, to head after Yunho. Then the feeling of surging through the water catches up to him, and he forgets about everything else.

 

He has not been in the water for four years, but his body seems to have forgotten the fact. Changmin’s arms flex and work; his legs kick and paddle, it is as though he has never left it.

 

Whilst chasing Yunho through the water, Changmin allows himself to admire Yunho’s form, a blur rippling in front of him. The latter is indeed a natural, as Ryeowook’s course mates had claimed so many months ago; he swims as if he is born to do so.

 

He exhales, surfacing to gulp a breath and curves his body down again. Now the water is cool and beautifully fluid around him. And all Changmin wants to do is to drift through it in silence.

 

Except it is not silent. Not really.

 

Changmin finds that he is not quite as fast as Yunho, of course; but he still cuts through the water at a decent speed. And swimming like this, with his blood pounding in his ears and his heart pounding in his chest, and the sound of bubbles forming and bursting around him, Changmin realises with a start that he feels happier than he has been in a long time. Since before he entered university, as a matter of fact.

 

There is a touch on his shoulder and he turns from focusing on the tiled boundary ahead, to spy Yunho by his side, already overlapping him. Yunho smiles, flashing a thumbs-up and teeth that look bluer than white underwater at Changmin. And he is off again, streaking in the opposite direction, his arms churning powerfully through the water.

 

Changmin does not mind losing, though. Yunho in the water is a stunning sight to behold.

 

* * *

 

Things settle into a routine somewhat, and Changmin makes it a point to swim with Yunho once a week, usually at an odd time of the day when Yunho is training by himself and the pool is otherwise deserted.

 

There is a tacit agreement between them to not mention their weekly session in the presence of other friends, and Changmin hugs the knowledge to himself at night, when he is curled up in bed with a ratty duvet in a tiny dorm room in possession of a window that rattles whenever the wind kicks up. It pleases him more than it should that he and Yunho have something that is just between the two of them.

 

He has long admitted to himself that he has romantic feelings with regard to Yunho, but he is uncertain what to do with them. Yunho seems to like him well enough, but Changmin is not certain if he will still do so when Yunho finds out his friend is homosexual and possibly in love with him.

 

* * *

 

Winter comes, and the swimming club moves their practice sessions to a heated indoor pool off-campus, and Changmin spends less time with Yunho as a result of the change in location, as well as the increased training all members are undergoing in order to prepare for the national championship in spring.

 

Yunho sends him a “I miss you ):” text on his phone while Changmin is in class one day, and it leads to more than a few sleepless nights on Changmin’s end. He tosses and turns in bed, his mind playing the he-loves-me-he-loves-me-not game while he curses himself for behaving like an idiotic teenager girl.

  

* * *

 

 

It takes Yunho winning the national championship in the thousand five hundred metres freestyle event for in the following April for them to actually act on their feelings for each other. Changmin storms into the men’s changing room, glaring hard at the rest of the swim team, practically daring anyone to object to his presence. “Everyone out. ”

 

No one does, and they all file out abnormally quickly, fearful of the legendary film major senior who tops all modules he is in, leaving only Changmin and the lone voice belting out the newest single of some odd boy band duo in the last shower.

 

Yunho.

 

He barges into the shower, thanking whatever higher power there is that the university is too stingy to install actual doors with locks embedded in them. Yunho yelps, half-blinded by shampoo and water in his eyes. “Who-”

 

He shuts up when Changmin hurtles forward, clothes and all, to embrace him under the shower spray, his back to Changmin’s chest. Changmin buries his head into Yunho’s naked shoulder, content to remain thus.

 

“…Changmin? Is that you?” Yunho ventures cautiously when it is clear that Changmin is content to stand there and say nothing. He twists around, relief stark on his face. “It _is_ you. Ugh, why didn’t you say anything? I thought it was some crazy pervert or—”

 

He trails off as Changmin lifts his head, eyes wet with spiky lashes. Framing Yunho’s face with his hands, Changmin glides his palms over smooth, wet skin. “You did it. I knew you could.”

 

“Yeah.” Yunho grins helplessly. “I heard you cheering. You were really loud.”

 

“You did?” Changmin cannot help but smile back, hooked on Yunho’s emotions and Yunho’s smile and Yunho’s face and Yunho’s scent. “I was screaming like a lunatic, I think my friends think I’m clinically insane now. I bet they’re reconsidering my friendship with them. Kyuhyun especially.”

 

“’S okay,” Yunho murmurs, slipping a soapy arm around Changmin’s waist and reeling him in, until it is clothed chest against naked chest. “You’ll still have me.”

 

“I do, don’t I?” Changmin leans even closer and presses his forehead against Yunho’s. They smile at each other foolishly, even as water runs down their faces and into their eyes and mouths. Something about this moment makes Changmin pluck up his courage; courage that he was not even sure existed before. “Yunho… I think I love you.”

 

“I think I love you, too.” Yunho replies, the grin on his face so wide that it is crinkling his eyes into twin crescent moons. He presses his mouth chastely, tenderly against Changmin’s, and they remain as thus until Changmin feels something grow hard against his thigh. He looks down and up again, quickly, at Yunho’s abashed grin. “Oh. _Oh_.”

 

“Yeah.” Yunho scratches at the back of his neck. “Sorry, it’s just, you’re here and we’re kissing and I love you and you love me and I’m naked and… Yeah. Sorry.”

 

“No, shit, don’t apologise!” Changmin gabbles, unsure if he should cling tighter or back away to give Yunho some much needed privacy belatedly. “I, er, maybe I should go—”

 

“No, no,” Yunho shakes his head, spraying Changmin in the face with soapy water. “Argh, sorry, but no, don’t go—”

 

“Ow.” Changmin blinks, eyes watering.

 

Their fingers entwine and tangle together as they try to both wipe the water out of Changmin’s face at the same time, and when his eyes finally stop smarting from the sting of Yunho’s shampoo, Changmin feels his lips curve at how adorably flustered Yunho is. “I’ll stay then.”

 

And stay he does, until the swimming club president comes back into the changing room and bangs loudly on their closed door, yelling for both of them to “come out and celebrate like proper people before you both drown in the showers together”.

 

* * *

 

“So you two are together? Like, _together_ together?” Minho questions, a vaguely horrified look contorting his face. They are at the nearest pizza parlour off-campus, celebrating Yunho’s win and Minho’s silver medal in four hundred metres butterfly, after the official after party with their club has ended.

 

Ryeowook tries to stick a bunch of chips into Minho’s mouth, but it is too late. Both Yunho and Changmin turn in tandem to stare at him, Yunho beaming dopily while Changmin has both eyebrows arched.

 

“Yeah!” Yunho answers, while Changmin quirks a corner of his mouth, “yes. Do you have a problem with that?”

 

“I, uh,” Minho fumbles, not sure who to look at. Ryeowook has his head in his hands and Kyuhyun is laughing himself sick in the corner of the booth, a bit of pizza crust dangling from his slack fingers. “Uh, no problem, no problem at all.”

 

“Yay! Don’t worry, Minho, I’ll take good care of Changminnie,” Yunho munches on a slice of pizza, the words coming out half-mutilated. He slings an arm around a glowering Changmin, who is snarling at Minho. “You better not have a problem with it, because it’s none of your fucking business.”

 

“Be nice, Changmin.” Yunho’s admonishment only makes Changmin scowl harder. Kyuhyun makes an odd croaking noise from where he is, and Changmin snaps. “What the fuck is wrong with you? Do you have a problem with it, too?”

 

“Ggggrk,” Kyuhyun replies, and Ryeowook reaches behind to thump him hard twice, on his back. A piece of soggy crust flies out from his mouth, and Changmin recoils from where he is seated opposite, back against Yunho, who erupts in an explosion of mirth. “Fuck, that’s gross, Cho!”

 

“S’rry, chawk’d.” Kyuhyun offers as explanation, wiping his mouth on his sleeve and grabbing for the bottle of red wine in the middle. “Nah, no problem,” he clarifies, once he is capable of speaking coherently again. “About time you both fuck. The sexual tension was unbearable.”

 

“Don’t be crass, Kyuhyun,” Ryeowook lectures, and Yunho laughs even harder, his entire frame shaking from his chuckling. Changmin jabs an elbow into Yunho’s side, but he cannot stop the edge of his lips from curving upwards, as well.  

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

End.


End file.
